Character - Trafalgar D. Water Law
CW - Little angst, f!reader, Original character, Mentions of Smoking, Mink!reader, Unrequited feelings, Slow burn, apothecary!reader
Summary - Law has spent the last month trying to diagnose a condition he cannot identify. And the corporate? A revolutionary army medic named Selkie. Law doesn’t tell her he’s a pirate. Selkie doesn’t tell him she’s a revolutionary. Both are lying.
(Note) This is my first time ever writing fan fiction, I have no prior experience. So please, feel free to drop feedback or suggestions in the comments or message me! Thank you. °ʚ(*´꒳`*)ɞ°
Selkie - In case you require visuals for the original character.
The Polar Tang docked at a small fishing island for a few days. They were here for supplies and information on tide routes and a log pose after Bepo had got distracted at the last island and let it get stolen right off his wrist during the fight with a rival supernova. ‘S-Sorry captain!” Bepo sensed the look on Law's face and just knew he was recalling it. Docked on the east side of this island were only a few small fishing docks and some shops for the locals. Small, easy, should be no issue, yea?
“Get in and get out, we aren't here to mess around.” Trafalgar said sternly to his crew before they hopped down from the opening of the submarine. The plan was for Law to get supplies from inland and bring it back, he would handle the log pose tomorrow.
Law watched his crew go down the beach, ignoring every rule he had just told them about messing around- watching Penguin and Shachi poke at a weird looking sea pickle, bothering the poor animal with a stick to its iridescent skin. “Idiots.. “ Law murmured under his breath before shaking his head and turning around back into the submarine. He tossed his blue coat over his shoulders and ruffled his hair a bit before throwing on his signature white and black spotted hat.
He was in the fishing town now, the place smelt vaguely of seawater and fish, the soft air layering everything in this dewy feeling. The plan was to get a few crates of medical aid, and a few drinks with a fisherman comfortable enough to give him route information for free. Option two was just to threaten the information out of a poor man on the street, though Law was in the mood for the first option.
He walked into an old looking bar on the corner and sat down, lightly greeting the bartender with a “mm”, ordering a vodka soda and sitting near the far end. His eyes scooped the bar looking for someone young and dumb enough to let him take some information but also smart enough to know the correct fishing routes, and preferably drunk.
“Was fishin’ earlier and this cute little seak mink came outta nowhere and stole my catch! I wanted to get it back but had a feeling I should just let the seal girl have it.” The fisherman dramatically told this story from across the bar, throwing his arms up, moving his hands like characters, and ultimately looking down to the rim of his drink when he let a small seal looking girl steal his catch, The fisherman being rather tall after all. Law cared very little about this information but noted that he was loud and drunk enough to give him all the info he needed.
“Spotted.” Law said quietly under his breath, his lips twitching upwards to form something that wasn't quite a smirk. He finished the rest of his drink and brought a round of shots, one for him and one for this sailor. Law had waited until everyone drifted elsewhere and it was just them in that area then stood up smoothly, took the drinks in his hand, and slid one to the fisherman. “How generous, tryin’ to flatter me?” the fisherman barked out a laugh, taking the drink in his calloused hands and downing it in one go.
“Good.” Law thought to himself, he knew this was going to be an easy thing, I mean look at the guy.. Hair pushed back still damnened with sea water from the backlash of the waves, faint blush on his cheeks from the alcohol in his system right now, and the fact you can just tell by looking at the guy that he's got a loud mouth.
“Caught me, you seem like the type to know a thing about routes.” Law kept his tone friendly enough, The real motives behind the question was anything but friendship. The fisherman puffed up his chest as his face plastered a huge grin over it.
“Hell yeah! The best routes ya gonna find from the best fisher you’ll find!” He confidently said, “cocky. Bet you think you're the best. Ignorant.” Law thought to himself before clearing his throat and forcing the corner of his mouth to pull into a small smirk.
Law stepped out of the bar and into the late afternoon sunlight, tucking a small notebook beneath his arm. The place had smelled like cheap alcohol, saltwater, and awful decisions, but it had served its purpose, to him at least. Who knew a drunken sailor could turn out to be a surprisingly good source of information? Apparently law.
Law flipped through the pages slowly as he walked, reviewing some of the information. Marine movements in the area, What tides led you to bad waters, and probably the most exaggerated pirate rumor he’s ever heard.
Bepo had soon spotted him walking back to the pier. “Captain!!” Law closed his eyes briefly before turning around to see the big pile of white fluff jogging towards him. “You were in there so long! What is it?” Bepo slowed into a walk beside him, catching his breath a bit.
“Useful information, navigation, the usual.” Law replied, his tone tired as always. “And before you ask, No you can not see. You get lost in clear water.” Law clarified as he rolled his eyes slightly, but something in the ocean caught his eye..
“W-wah!? You can be so cruel sometimes, captain..” Bepo pouted, unaware the Law's attention was neither on him nor the unread pages in his hand.
At first all he saw was water shifting.. Not wind, not waves— something beneath the surface. Then the surface broke, not in a splash.. in a gentile way like whatever or whoever it was had every right to be there. A girl..
She couldn’t have been over 21, maybe 20? Standing at 5 foot 6, Her hair was the color of soft moonlight caught beneath even softer waves, Sandy white, black tips and damp. Tied back messily as strands clung to her damp face. Her eyes- God.. her eyes. Large obsidian black eyes barely absorbed any sunlight at all, eerie, but personally made to piss him off he thought. Her skin was sunkissed, but not in the way surfers are tanned, she just looked.. sunkissed. Small freckles dotted under her eyes like specks of sand. Forearms covered in seal-like fur that ended in claws. Her ears were the tell, soft and rounded with white and greyish fur, Seal-like, Beautiful in a way that wasn’t supposed to exist on land.
She wore a halter top tied with a sea blue fabric, jeweled with sea glass and beads. The fabric draped over her chest, gathered in the center with a flower that looked like it could’ve been plucked right off the sea floor, and maybe it was. A sheer flowing wrap hung low around her hips. Her body was still glistening with saltwater she seemed unbothered by.
She walked out of the ocean like it was the most normal thing in the world. Dripping, unbothered, carrying a net over one shoulder filled with exotic fish she had just caught then looked over and smiled. At him. Like it was a normal Tuesday, like they had known each other for years, like she wasn’t just fucking with Laws chemical balance currently. Law's breath hitched, and for just a moment.. the world narrowed to just her. Not in lust, Not even in infatuation. This was something more painful, something dangerous, something he swore up and down for years he just “wasn’t the type to be attracted to people like that”. What’s gotten into him?
The girl's name is Selkie. Selkie isn’t a soldier, not really at least. She couldn’t command battlefields with just her voice. She couldn’t sink warships. She couldn’t inspire revolutions with speeches that made crowds roar. What she was good at was keeping people alive. The revolutionary’s best medic, Selkie. She specialized in medicine that existed outside of textbooks and from islands that were long gone in and erased from history, what did remain from those islands was selkies medical knowledge.
She didn’t know every textbook drug like law did and couldn’t name the exact compounds of penicillin, however she could identify plants, herbs and what they do and mix them to create poisons and medicine alike.
That was why the Revolutionary Army kept sending her places no one else wanted to go. For the last four months, Selkie had lived under a false name among a chain of small fishing islands scattered across the Grand Line to the New World. To the locals, she was nothing more than a wandering apothecary. a strange mink girl who traded herbal remedies for fish and offered treatment to anyone who needed it. Though the truth was much more complex than that.
For months she had traveled from island to island by fishing boats or surf board, carrying and tracking medicines hidden among ordinary cargo. Every fisherman cured of sickness, every healthy child, and every village who stopped fearing death due to the lack of medical treatment strengthened the Revolutionary Army’s influence in the region, which is exactly what Dragon wanted her to do. Stay low, Don’t tell anyone what side you’re on, marines fold in fast.
As far as the world was concerned, she was just a traveling apothecary looking for her next island. Selkie preferred it that way, it made it easier to lie.
“Ah-“ A strangled sound exited Law's mouth before he could stop it, not a sentence, not even a word, just a small involuntary sound that took a toll on his dignity before he could stop it. Bepo turned around, his eyebrows furrowed with slight worry “captain? Is something the matter?” Law turned his head away from the water fast. Too fast for someone who saw nothing. He avoided Bepo's eyes and muttered “..Nothing.” Law continues walking though now a little faster, trying to seem as if the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen in his life didn’t just emerge from the water.
Law wasn’t the type of man to get childish “crushes”. He didn’t stare, didn’t chase, didn’t flirt. Sure he could recognize when someone was attractive I mean, he’s not blind.. but when it came to that pit in his stomach or the feeling of attraction he’s heard other pirates describe like it was actually worth something he’d just chuckle under his breath and ignore the crazy idiot trying to convince him of something he’s never felt. But here he was, feeling it, feeling it hard, feeling it like his heart had just decided to stop doing its job so now he had to manually breathe. “The hell? Am I sick? Something’s gotta be wrong with me.” He thought to himself, already looking more in his head than usual, but Bepo had learned that questioning his odd captain would only land him cleaning duty for a month, and he did not want to clean up after Penguin nor Shachi.
Law could convince himself that this was a one time thing, just a surprising encounter with a strange sea girl, just an attractive stranger. Nothing else.. Though now he was suddenly aware of just how much he had noticed just by being in her proximity for 12 secon- BONK.
Law, Trafalgar Law, The feared surgeon of Death from the south blue to the north blue had just run head on into a wooden support beam. Not brushed it, not clipped it, walked into it head first and fell backwards.
Law is usually the most observant person you'll ever meet so if he was making mistakes like this, oh, it's bad. The sound echoed, Bepo sees a nearby seagull get spooked and take off. Law sat where he landed, expression blank, dead. Bepo looked at the poll then looked at law, his forehead already starting to bruise.
“Captain..” Law didn't look up at him “Shut up.”
Bepo continued “Did you just-” “Bepo. Shut. Up” Bepo looked nervous now but watching his captain run into a pole might've been the weirdest thing he's ever seen.
“The beam is kinda shaking..” Law didn't reply to Bepo, like the whole thing didn't just happen, like he didn't just run head first into a pole like an idiot
“...Cleaning duty for a month.”
“NOO!” Bepo threw his hands up in horror.
Law took a deep breath and adjusted his hat, His forehead throbbing a bit but he'd rather pretend nothing happened as if the entire beach hadn't just witnessed the most humiliating moment of his life. “Captain..” Bepo whispered, Law shot him a look only to find the seal mink girl sitting in front of him, her eyebrows furrowed with concern, her head tilted to one side. Somehow this makes everything worse. A lot worse. Water still dripped from the ends of her hair, the pale blue fabric she had worn now glimmering in the setting sun, and her black obsidian eyes now staring directly at him. She was close, really close. Her fishing net rested beside her, still carrying the tropical fish she had caught earlier before he decided to make a fool out of himself.
“Are you injured?" The seal girl spoke softly, eyeing his slowly bruising forehead. Her voice was softer than he had expected, Law immediately wished she had never spoken. His heart stumbled, once, hard. His expression didn't change even though he felt moments away from his heart pounding out of his chest, he was convinced everyone around him could hear it. “Captain?” Bepo's voice sounded distant, Law didn't reply, because the seal mink was still looking directly at him, waiting, patient. Remaining eye contact with his woman whose eyes were darker than the deep sea suddenly felt harder than performing surgery.
Law blinked once, then twice. The world snapped back into view and he tried to focus on other things. The beach, the sound of waves turning seashells in the water, the laughter of fishermen coming back with a big catch, the smell of saltwater and sand in the air. He's fine, totally fine.
“..I'm fine.” Law managed to say, avoiding her eyes for several seconds at a time. Suddenly he was very interested in the texture of the sand beneath his hands. The response came a little too quickly for her liking. “No, I don't think you are.” The way she said it didn't sound like a question, more like a statement he couldn't argue with. Law glanced behind her and saw Bepo physically turn away to hide his face. Betrayal.
“It was an accident” He murmured.
“You ran straight into it-” she tilted her head more.
“It came out of nowhere,” Law said quickly.
Then silence, crickets, distant noises as the seal girl stared directly at him and he forced himself to stare back, his jaw clenching.
“The pole?” She seemed confused, what did he mean the pole.. Came out of nowhere? Law felt his soul briefly leave his body. The worst part is that she wasn't even making fun of him, she was genuinely confused as if she was trying to understand how a support beam managed to appear right in front of him as he was walking. Law adjusted his hat lower as if it would do any good hiding him from the embarrassment.
Before he could stop her she moved closer, much closer, close enough that it almost sent law into another heart attack. He became hyper aware of how much space was in between them, and honestly by this point they were separated by inches. Law felt his heart hammer against his ribs as he tried to keep his breathing steady enough to still look expressionless on the outside. This was becoming medically concerning for him. “May I?” She lifted her hand to his forehead, not quite touching yet just hovering. “..Ill live” He was trying to save some of his dignity at this point but she rummaged in her pocket and pulled out some kind of cooling bandaid and stuck it right on his forehead. “Youll live, but this will feel better, right?” the corners of her lips lifted ever so slightly into a smile.
He had no idea what she had just said, if Bepo had asked him to recite it later he couldn't even tell him the first word. All he knew was that this seal mink had just put a bandaid on his forehead and he was freaking out internally over it. She stood and stepped back, brushing off the sand from her knees and extending her hand out to him.
“You can call me Selkie.” She waited for him to take her hand.
He looked at her, then looked at her soft fur covered hands and took one hesitantly in which she immediately pulled him up off the ground, law going with it with a surprised sound “and your?..” she didn't let go of his hand once he was up.
Suddenly he was aware of the way her fur felt against his palm, and the claws sliding on the back of his tattooed hand then remembered he actually had to speak. “Law.. Trafalgar Law.” She smiled at that, her sharp teeth showing behind her smile. It only made law want to know more about her, what else made her smile, could he see it more, could he see her again..? “You're taller than I thought” she chuckled.
Usually Law wasn't the type to stick around anyone long enough to give them his name, nor make conversation. All he wanted to do on this whole island was get that information and get out before marines spotted his crew and got into another pointless fight. But now he found himself standing in front of Selkie hoping the conversation wouldn't end.
“So..” Selkie looks around the beach, her eyes landing on the briefly surfaced submarine near the docks Law seemed to be striding to before the pole had personally attacked him.
“You're a pirate.. Right? I mean that is your submarine over there.” Selkie looked at the submarine, looked back at him, then suddenly noticed how intense he looked and averted her eyes to the ground, his gaze cut like surgical precision.
For some reason Law felt the hairs on the back of his neck stood as if it was a bad idea to tell her the truth.
The kind of people civilians avoid and run away screaming on the daily. Selkie appeared just to be a traveling apothecary, definitely not a pirate. Telling her he was a pirate might run her off, might make her never want to see him again, might make her stop looking at him with curiosity and replace it with fear and disgust. So he did the only thing he could process fast enough to do at that moment. Lie like a pirate.
“..No. I mean Yes, that is my submarine. But no, I'm not a pirate, just a surgeon.” Law cleared his throat and shifted balance on one foot to the other, avoiding Bepo's confused gaze behind him.
Law wasn't just a pirate and he wasn't just a surgeon. He was a supernova, a pirate from the worst generation, the surgeon of death, and the man that hand delivered one hundred hearts personally to the marines just for fun. As the marine who happened to be the one to open the crate holding them “The guys a creep!”
Bepo cleared his throat to get Law's attention away from Selkie for a moment and shot him a deeply confused look. Selkie could practically feel the tension as the air grew thick and decided this was suddenly something she no longer wanted to deal with. She sensed that “No, this wasn't just “some surgeon”" I mean what surgeon travels in a freaking submarine and has a polar bear as a navigator, but it was best not to push.
Selkie looked at Bepo and gave a nervous smile to Law. “Well.. okay then, See you around, Trafalgar.” Selkie chuckled under her breath, but it sounded more forced and nervous than genuinely amused, her eyes can't decide whether to retain eye contact with this man or pretend she found a seashell along the beach.
Law wasn't stupid, he's studied human behavior for many years, he could tell she didn't believe him from the way she was looking for something interesting in the sand to chase down. “..Thanks for the bandage.” was all Law could muster out before Selkie was off, leaving him where he stood in the sand beside Bepo as he watched her run off to chase a blue crab down the beach. He turned his back fast and sped walked to the polar tang, almost leaving Bepo beside. “C-Captain! What do you mean we aren't pirates?! We are definitely pirates!” Bepo scrambled to speed walk beside him before he was left behind.
Law's gaze remained ahead and his pace didn't slow one bit and didn't dare look at Bepo as told a little white lie to his navigator. “Bepo, relax. There's no need to go scaring civilians. Plus it's not smart to tell everyone we are pirates when we are just docked for supplies, alright?”
If he had spoken to Selkie every awful day this month he could have an excuse for thinking about her constantly since that weird interaction back at the small fishing island last month. Instead he’s been haunted by her presence constantly for the past thirty days, just from a brief 15 minute conversation.
He hasn't even seen her since leaving. Embarrassing, a man like him circling back on the same memory over and over trying to analyze her reactions and diagnose his feelings like they were symptoms to be taken care of.
He's irritated. Very, very irritated. Usually Law is a patient man, surgery requires patience which he's performed more times than he can count. Writing medical textbooks required patience, his bookshelf is full of them. Every hobby or thing he did required patience, now suddenly his brain was off balance. Shachi's laugh echoing down the hallway of the hallway's polar tang after dinner was served pissed him off, the lough sound ringed through his ears even though he had decided to eat dinner alone in his office, same as yesterday, and the day before that as well. Bepo accidentally put in the wrong coordinates for the polar tangs navigation, only if it was a few harmless decimals off, still pissed Law off.
Law has been smoking more than usual, ironic for a doctor, right? The ash tray sitting on his deck on top of a stack of documents used as a paper weight, cigarettes smoked down to nubs sat inside. It definitely wasn't because of that seal girl, he had been thinking about more important things. Life or death things. Definitely not Selkie.. Unfortunately it doesn't help much, every cigarette ends with him remembering her nervous look around and her claws itching at the fur on her arms.
Law had been tracking his symptoms over the past month trying to diagnose himself. He'd check his pulse several times a day, take his temperature, and write down his symptoms.
Can't stop thinking about one seal girl that personally decided to haunt every corner of his brain. No diagnosis, must be a new disease.
“Captain, you okay? you always look like you're waiting for someone when we dock. What? Got a girlfriend?” Penguin teased though he was genuinely concerned for his captain. The fact Law hesitated before answering told Penguin everything he needed to know. “I'm fine, Penguin.” The polar tang was said to dock at a popular port by nightfall. The island had pirates, marines, and revolutionaries alike. It was one of those islands that people docked at when they wanted trouble, something to do. Or in the Heart Pirates case.. it was just somewhere to rest for a while, they have been in the open ocean on that dark submarine for a month.
As the crew filtered out from the polar tang Law was the last to leave. His boots hit the deck with a thump as he made his way to the small market place lit by lanterns and tacky fairy lights. The air clung thick and smelt of pepperminty herbs and cured wood. The market sold things from lovely flowers to poisons that were said to kill in a heartbeat, legal and illegal. Pirates pushed past each other being tracked by bounty hunters they were oblivious to, not that Law cared. He just needed a place to clear his mind, maybe buy some sleeping herbs that would lay pointless on his shelf because they never worked for his insomnia.
He moved through the crowded marketplace with his hands shoved into his pockets. The market was loud, too loud. Lantern light spilled across broken cobstone pavements while merchants shouted over each other from every direction trying to draw attention to their stands. Normally law liked places like this, they were useful. Information flowed easily through places like these, whether it was something he overheard or someone that slipped up in a conversation giving him info he secretly filed away. But tonight every voice itched at his nerves.
His tired gaze drifted over displays of hung dried flowers, crates full of ripe tropical fruits, equipment, weapons, medicine—
Law stopped walking before his mind caught up. Half way hidden in between two larger stands sat a small wooden booth lit by a singular lantern, strung with dried herbs. The table was lined with dried flowers, glass bottles with custom labels, antidotes and relievers, small cloth bags tied together with twine. The sort of stand most people in this place would glance at once and walk right past without giving it a second thought. Law's heart skipped a beat, because standing behind the stall was a girl with sandy-like hair.
The lantern above her casted a warm glow over her sandy white hair gathered into a loose bun while those impossibly black eyes focused on tying together a herb bundle with string. The realization hit harder than it should have. A whole month of sleepless nights, cigarettes, and convincing himself meeting her was a one time thing, here she was standing behind an apothecary stall on an island he almost didn’t dock at.
Apparently his condition was terminal.
His eyes followed her movements before he could stop them. The way her soft furred fingers sorted dried leaves into glass jars, the way her ears twitched whenever some merchant got louder nearby, the little furrow in between her brows whenever the string wouldn’t cooperate with her herbs. This shouldn’t have felt like relief to Law, yet something in his chest loosened for the first time in weeks. Selkie looked up and their eyes met in a market filled with dozens of people. Her black eyes widened and for a second she simply stared, then the corner of his lips lifted into a smirk.
“Oh!” Selkie let out a sound of recognition. Of course she recognized him, a face like that is hard to forget. Or maybe it was because normal people don’t walk into support beams. Selkie abandoned whatever she was doing and moved to the front of her stand. “Trafalgar, I thought I’d never see you again.” She smiled slightly.
Hearing his name leave her lips shouldn’t have affected him as much as it did, but honestly he felt pretty victorious about it because he had thought about this exact thing every day. Seeing her again. Law opened his mouth, except nothing came out.
The many years of his social skills at work.
“..Hello” Law managed to get out before the silence turned awkward, how smooth of him. He could perform surgery on himself but somehow that was easier than forming actual sentences around Selkie. Selkie's smile widened, and despite everything. The stress, the irritation, the insomnia. For the first time this entire month, or maybe even his life, law found himself looking forward to a conversation.
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Chapter two will be linked here when finished.
